Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 38: Zephyr

We were too late to save the people taken to the Tuatha ruins, but we were at least able to stop whatever ritual they had planned there. At the epsilon ruins, we met back up with Finn, Nato, and Daisy.

"Mom," Finn gasped. "On our way back, we found a cave with House of Serpent Shadows surrounding its entrance. There must have been a dozen of them."

"We didn't want to fight that many at a time, so we came back here," said Nato.

"Mom, something about that place felt familiar," Finn continued. "From Soareus Peak. I think they were Gates of Hell."

"You found them?" asked Haemon. "We have to get over there before they open!"

"Show us," Eris ordered.

Finn, Nato, and Daisy led us around the eastern coast of Arcadis, where I could already sense an immense aura of darkness. They stopped us when we arrived at a cave in the side of a cliff overlooking the ocean. There weren't any Shadows to keep us from entering it, but that may have been because they were all inside of it. Something else was in there, though. It was something much more powerful than a Shadow, and more powerful than any demon I've fought. I would believe that it was Gates of Hell if I actually saw it.

"Let's get in there," said Eris.

"Wait," I halted. "They can see us even if we're aura cloaked, remember?"

"What?" Nato whispered.

"One saw me," I said.

"Just be more careful than you usually would, then," Eris advised. "But we still have to stop those gates from opening."

We went into the cave with our weapons out in front of us, with hardly any light to show us our way forward. There were electric torches stuck into the ground, but they were incredibly dim, and I could still hardly see. I could still sense auras, though, and would be able to when we ran into the House of Serpents' Shadows. Eventually, we came to a large grotto with shallow water under its ceiling. There was a pair of enormous gates opposite the tunnel we came from, with a long and wide wooden bar keeping them from opening. Ancient Tongue sigils were etched into the wooden beam, possibly keeping whatever was on the other side of the gates from escaping. From the side of the beam, and what Finn told us, the gates could only be one thing. They were the Gates of Hell. Between us and them were a dozen Shadows of the Abyss, all from the House of Serpents, and all of different classes. Four of them must have been Aggressors, four of them Stalkers, and the rest were undoubtedly Warlocks. They weren't the only ones here, though. A Necromancer was there with them, standing directly in front of the Gates of Hell. He was facing the gates, pointing a staff with a glowing, red crystal of dark malakyte at it, and firing a beam of red light at the wooden beam.

"That's Shtriga," Daisy hissed, with anger in her voice.

"He's breaking the seal," Finn gasped, taking out his bow, and drawing the string back.

"Fo," he whispered, and an arrow of light flew through the air, going straight through Shtriga's head. His body collapsed, and blood began to spill from the wound in his head. All of the Shadows then suddenly turned around to look at us, forming their dark aura blades. We were outnumbered, but we still had to kill every Shadow here, since they could potentially finish Shtriga's work and open the Gates of Hell themselves. All of Arcadis would have monsters rampaging across its landscape.

"Come on!" Eris shouted, igniting a spear out of her aura blade emitter. All of us charged forward as the Shadows charged at us. Finn and I confronted three at once. An Aggressor with an odachi-shaped dark aura blade, a Stalker with a pair of black sais, and a Warlock that didn't have his dark aura blade in his hand yet. The Stalker and Warlock focused on Finn, feeling his aura was more powerful than mine, while I handled the Aggressor. He immediately swung his odachi at me, which I parried with my bladestaff before staggering him with an aura blast. I swung my aura blade at him with all my strength, but the Shadow warped away. I unleashed an aura blast all around myself in case he warped behind me, but I didn't hear a "thud" or anything. Instead, I saw the Aggressor charging at me again, with his odachi above his head. I stepped backward as the black blade came down, then twirled my aura blade to swing it at the Shadow. He raised his dark aura blade to block the attack, and the second my blade touched his, I warped behind him and stabbed one of the blades of my staff through his back, shattering his dark aura shield, and plunging the blade all the way through his chest. I pulled my weapon out of his chest, then went to help Finn. The Warlock was about to blast flames at him, and I cut through his dark aura shield with a swing of my bladestaff before landing another one on his back that killed him. The Warlock went down just in time for me to see Finn running his broadsword-shaped aura blade through the Stalker's chest. I looked around, and saw that the other Shadows guarding the Gates of Hell were also dead. Eris faded her aura blade emitter, and Finn and I faded our aura blades. I saw Daisy walk to stand over Shtriga's body, rolling him over with her foot to see his face, with a hole in between his eyes caused by Finn's arrow.

"He got what he deserved," she whispered.

Nato placed a hand on her shoulder to console her, but I still sensed the same anger from her as before. I had forgotten that she watched Shtriga kill another rogue Mage that was a friend of hers. I could understand her anger. If someone killed Morgan, John, or Penny, then I would want to tear them to as many pieces as I could. At least Shtriga wasn't a threat anymore, though. All of his necromancers would be free from his control, and the House of Serpents may very well leave Arcadis, seeing that someone was able to kill this many of their comrades. Arcadis was safe.

"So, what do we do about the gates?" I wondered.

"We could etch extra warding into its bar to keep it from opening again," Finn suggested. "That way, it'd take more necromancy to break it, or it couldn't be broken at all. Mom?"

"Let's get started," Eris agreed. She and Finn took out their weapons and stepped towards the bar to etch more warding into it, and I did too, when my holo device suddenly vibrated. I answered it, seeing that there was a recorded message sent to it, from Morgan!

"Zephyr," she began. "I know we aren't supposed to have contact with each other, but I wouldn't be sending you this message if it wasn't important. We've found a possible lead on the Archdemon of Gluttony, Grimeus, and we're going after him. This is an Archdemon we're talking about, which is why I'm contacting John and Penny, as well. I miss all of you, but I'm bringing us together for a bigger reason than that. We're up against a true, and serious threat to Zenartha. I'm in Cordinshire if you're coming. I hope you do."

As much as I was relieved to hear Morgan's voice again, what she did sending me this message was a huge, huge violation of the very last order Commander Jonas gave us before we split up, which was to stay split up. She was going after an Archdemon, though, and she couldn't do it alone. I had to meet her in Cordinshire.